HIV infection has infected over 33 million people worldwide. Though highly activated anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) has been effective at controlling infection leading to a better long-term outcome for patients, it has failed to eradicat the latently reservoir. There is a critical need to develop approaches that can lead to a functiona cure. The overall objectives of this application are to evaluate therapeutic vaccination approaches to enhance the immune system mediated clearance of latently infected cells.
In Specific aim 1, we will determine is therapeutic vaccine can be used to enhance B cell responses and if these responses can clear the latent virus.
In Specific aim 2, we will determine if NK cell activity can be enhanced leading to better elimination of latently infected cells. Overal these studies have the potential to lead to a functional cure and better long-term outcome.
HIV causes immunodeficiency very rapidly by killing the cells it infects. A number of cells become latently infected and stay hidden from the immune system. Eradicating these cells is essential to obtain a functional cure. This project explores the role of vaccination in eradicating the oral reservoir during HIV infection using the non-human primate model. The studies proposed here will aid in the development of a better therapeutic approach against HIV.
| Onabajo, Olusegun O; Lewis, Mark G; Mattapallil, Joseph J (2018) Chronic simian immunodeficiency virus infection is associated with contrasting phenotypes of dysfunctional Bcl6+ germinal center B cells or Bcl6- Bcl2+ non-germinal center B cells. J Cell Mol Med 22:5682-5687 |
| George, Jeffy; Mattapallil, Joseph J (2018) Interferon-? Subtypes As an Adjunct Therapeutic Approach for Human Immunodeficiency Virus Functional Cure. Front Immunol 9:299 |
